Review of Sony VGN-SR19XN
Posted by Ronan | Filed under laptop, technology
I’ve had Dell laptops pretty much from day 1. I like Dell, you get value for money but Dell machines were never the prettiest of laptops. Recently I got my light as a feather (1.9kg) stunning Sony Vaio laptop.
The first thing you notice on picking up the laptop is that it’s light but yet very sturdy - it’s not made with flimsy plastic (which I often felt Dell laptops were ). Opening the lid you noticed something borrowed from Apple. It has a mac’esq keyboard which I love - I suffer from stubbyfingeritis which means I mash and bash most keyboards. Not so with the Sony. The keys are very well spaced out and I haven’t hit a wrong key yet!!
The screen is insanely thin - but with metal back it feels solid and cool to the touch. There is no catch or lock for the screen - it simply closes and stays closed. With a 13.3inch widescreen it’s plenty big for most things.
The mouse pad is sweet - although I would like the mouse buttons to ‘clunk’ a little less. The fingerprint reader works well and can double up as a means of scrolling through pages - although the mouse pad has the right hand side and bottom edge as a scroll bar so I don’t use the fingerprint reader much.
The motion eye camera and inbuilt microphone is clear with skype/gtalk - people haven’t notice much of difference.
The one thing I love is the eery green power button in the hinge - very cool..very distinctive.
- it flashes orange when the lid is closed or in standby.
Elsewhere around the chassis it has the usual wifi on/off switch, SD flash card reader, pro magic reader, 2 usb ports, vga out (no digital out - booo), headphone & external mic, modem and ethernet port (hidden behind a plastic cover!)
Software:
It comes with Vista Business and it runs fine but I’d rather XP over Vista any day. Also bundled is Adobe Acrobat 8 which would normally cost 200 euros. You get a trial of 60 days of office which is more annoying than helpful. But even more annoying than office is mcafee antivirus. I hate mcafee so it was the first thing to be removed.. how can Mcafee consistently produce software that cripples every machine?? I was happy to find out there was no real other bloatware apart from mcaffe.
The only downside I’ve had with the laptop is I keep pressing the cd eject button when I pick it up - this should have been a slotin CD type drive.
All in all a super laptop. 4.5/5 stars!
Tags: cool, review, sony vaio, vgn-sr19xn
EnterpriseStart (Week 6)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under innovation, ireland, startup, technology
Alas the Enterprise Start program has come to an end. I’m amazed how quickly the six weeks, 36 hours in total, went! This weekend finished with a summary by Graham of the past weeks he also gave tips and recommendations on presenting.
AIB came in and talked to us about the various banking tools/loans/facilities- which was great because if you want to manage your cash then you need to be able to access and view it in realtime. I personally use the personal online banking and I know I couldn’t go with out it - from what I see the commercial tool will be vital going forward. They also offer free SFA Membership and currently running a Business Current Account Fee Offer.
On Saturday most of the participants did a presentation. The quality and standard was fantastic. It’s amazing how the group dynamic changed from the first evening we went in - some people were like fresh clams, closed and not giving anything away. By the end of the course they have opened up and presenting the idea with passion. Amazing - I think that’s a lot to do with interacting with the group and the encouragement from Graham and Donncha.
I have a much better idea of the products and services from the presentations and rest assured a couple will go on to big things.
Was the course worth it ? In a word, yes.
Should you do it ? If you have an idea and want to find out what you can do with it.. then it could be the best 36 hours you’ll ever spend in a room.
With that, a big thanks to Graham Royce and Donncha Hughes for their sterling effort, organising all the speakers, staying way after 10pm on Friday evening, getting up early on Saturday morning, connecting us with people that inspire and others that can help us on our journey.
Tags: AIB, EnterpriseStart, Final, Presentation
Gmail Gets Themes
Posted by Ronan | Filed under customize google, technology, web 2.0
Finally.. Gmail gets themes.
Shiny new themes that don’t kill Gmail - like stylish.
Log into gmail and Click Settings.. there you will find Themes - pick your favourite (shiny is my current fav). I’m sure it won’t be long until the user community can contribute and add new themes.
Thank you Gmail
Microsoft BizSpark
Posted by Ronan | Filed under innovation, ireland, software, startup, technology, windows
Finally Microsoft has come up with something useful for cash strapped startups - BizSpark.
I attended the Digital Media Island meetup last Thursday were Microsoft launched it - it looks pretty cool.
Microsoft® BizSpark™ is a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage startups by providing key resources when they need it the most:
- Software. Receive fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions. There is no upfront cost to enroll.
- Support. Get connected to Network Partners around the world — incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters — that are equally involved and vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship who will provide a wide range of support resources.
Visibility. Achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners
As a Microsoft BizSpark member, you’ll be tapping into a rich, vibrant ecosystem of peers, partners and support resources around the globe, helping you grow and succeed. Microsoft BizSpark is the quickest way to get your Startup fired up.
You just need to prove you are a startup ( Get EI, University etc.) and get a load of stuff for free (except you have to pay $100 on exit).
Get the guide here for more info.
Well done Microsoft. ( It’s not often I say that )
Tags: BizSpark, Digital Media Island, Microsoft
in darkness - let there be light
Posted by Ronan | Filed under innovation, random, technology
wow - the hour goes back and BAM it’s dark at 5.30! I cycle a lot and past experience tells me - darkness and cyclists doesn’t go hand in hand. In fact cyclists and traffic, regardless of light conditions, are locked in a never ending war. Often the cyclists win the battle by scooting past traffic and jumping lights, other times traffic wins, like the occasion last Friday when a white van trying to pass a car turning right squeezes me into the curb and knocking me off.
So what can we cyclist do to be more visible? Well wearing bright luminous jackets with reflectors is a start, having lights is also a must, but there is something missing that will make drivers notice you and give you the space you have the right to occupy. I started searching around the various sites for the answer (secretly hoping not to find it). I’ve found it here at the James Dyson Award. Reactiv by an innovator Michael Chen.
The jacket uses an accelerometer that senses movement to change the colour of the LEDs in the back from green (accelerating) to red (braking). It has amber LEDs in the arms which are activated by a tilt switch behind the elbow. These light up when the arm is lifted, indicating the cyclist is about to turn.
It should be for sale by Christmas .. if you come across it - please let me know!
Tags: cool, cycling, darkness, dyson, innovation, reactiv
EnterpriseStart program (week 1)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under startup, technology
Over the next 6 weeks I’m going to blog my experience of the EnterpriseSTART programme run in LIT. Well week one is over and here is a brief summary.
Donncha Hughes introduced the program, the EAC and what we should expect to have at the end of the course. After the introduction we did a short exercise - explain your idea to your neighbour and get them to share it with the group. This really makes you focus on what you have and how to communicate it effectively .. i.e. it ensures you have a good pitch that other people can understand in 30 seconds.
Jerry Moloney from Enterprise Ireland gave a talk about EI in the Shannon area and how it funds entrepreneurs - ok - so I’ve seen/heard this presentation in various forms and with having quite a bit of interaction with EI in the past year there wasn’t much new material here (for me anyway). For others I’d say it was a valuable presentation.
Our TTO kept asking us - who is your team? who would you like to have onboard? At first we thought we could do this by ourselves and dismissed the question on occasions. Over time it became clear we couldn’t do it alone and so we started to identify our weakness and find someone to fix it. Graham Royce gave a good presentation on the entrepreneur and re-iterated this sentiment with a really good example. Sir Fredrick Henry Royce. Royce was an engineer with an idea to make cars (better). He teamed up with Rolls, a guy with loads of money, and Claremont who was the business brains behind what became the luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce. Royce couldn’t have done it alone - he needed people around him to make his idea into a commercial one. It made me think - does the combination of money, business and engineers make a winning team ? I hope so.
The presentations from Gramham on the competitive advantage and opportunity really struck a chord, especially after a conversation I had with Shane from Mobanode (a cool company based in the Enterprise Acceleration Center) this week (more on that conversation at a later stage). Opportunity is everywhere and comes in many different guises - you just have to look and grasp it. If you take an opportunity and your fortunate to get your company up and running - maintaining advantage is a never ending process - one of many processes that entrepreneurs must do concurrently.
The day was wrapped up with an interesting case study presented by Brian Kelly from Calibration Technology.
To be honest, I was a little unsure what to expect, who I’d meet and what I’d take away from the EnterpriseStart program and yes it’s only week one but I’m looking forward to week2. The program has even turned up a couple of interesting people that could utilise/complement our technology.
Tags: EnterpriseStart
Shredder Alpha (Email Client)
Posted by Ronan | Filed under technology, windows
I’ve been using Shredder Alpha 2 for the past while on the desktop - the next generation of Mozilla Thunderbird. At a first glance it doesn’t have major improvements over Thunderbird 2 - however I have noticed it handles junk mail better, works much better with IMAP connections but really it’s a bit behind gmail (and Gmail Better 2).
Showcase Season
Posted by Ronan | Filed under Uncategorized, startup, technology
Wow - two showcases in one week. The first one, the Enterprise Ireland ICT showcase kicks off at 9am in Dublin next Monday ( more details in a previous post). Having had a sneak preview of the projects there are some really cool and interesting but more importantly investable projects being presented : )
The second showcase is Mid-West Entrepreneur Showcase 2008 on Thursday 9th of October in LIT
Some details on the showcase:
The Enterprise Acceleration Centre (EAC) at Limerick Institute of Technology is delighted to host the 2nd Annual Mid-West Entrepreneur Showcase at the Millennium Theatre on Thursday, the 9th of October as part of Limerick City Business Week.
Entrepreneurs, emerging entrepreneurs along with sales and business professionals are invited to attend the event which will consist of a half day Seminar entitled Winning Sales – the key to Start-Up Success and a Showcase featuring clients of the EAC, including the eleven 2008 Limerick Enterprise Acceleration Platform (LEAP) participants.
Sounds good so I’ll be attending. If you want to go register here
Tags: Showcase
How to improve gmail
Posted by Ronan | Filed under technology, web 2.0
gmail is great! I use it all the time - but sometimes I wish for some additional features, make it a little prettier and so on. I did a little bit of digging around on Firefox extension website and I found the mother ship of firefox addons: Better Gmail 2
It’s basically a collection of the best grease monkey scripts out there for gmail, there is a similar one for calendar although I don’t think it’s as good - but with all things web 2.0 it’s work in progress.
Tags: better gmail 2, gmail
N82 Sports tracker
Posted by Ronan | Filed under phone, random, technology
My phone (Nokia N82) which has GPS (great for receiving pinpoints) - has a handy application: Sports Tracker. It looked pretty cool so I took it for a cycle yesterday along this route.
The application can track you running, walking, cycling etc. and show you speed vs distance, speed vs time (to name a few) in handy graphs which you can save for later. It logs all your activities in a calendar so you compare your results if you run/walk the same route.You can also upload your activity to the website for all to see!
The best thing is .. it’s for free!
Tags: n82, sports tracker
